City of London’s first ultra-low emission street tackles toxic air

From April, Moor Lane in the UK capital's financial district will be open only to electric vehicles and certain hybrids. The Square Mile aims to reduce motor traffic by a quarter by 2030 and halve it by 2044.

Produced by Dan Garrahan; filmed and edited by Petros Gioumpasis; graphics by Tom Hannen

Transcript

This street in Central London is about to become the first zero-emission zone in the country. From next April, only electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will be allowed to drive down the street, which is right in the square mile in the centre of London.

The reason this is significant, although it's only a very small street, as you can see, is that the City of London Corporation is planning to introduce two zero-emission zones that will cover the Barbican and East Aldgate. So this is just the beginning of a programme that's about to be expanded.

London has some of the worst air pollution in the UK and is among one of the worst cities in the world when it comes to levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is from diesel vehicles. And that's the reason why the city is particularly focused on electric vehicles as part of the solution for answering its air pollution challenge.

London is one of just a handful of cities in the world that will have electric-vehicle-only streets at a time when global awareness of the health problems caused by our pollution is on the rise.